


Ma (間)

by KittyKatGeorgie



Category: Captain Underpants Series - Dav Pilkey, The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants (Cartoon)
Genre: Japanese, Nonbinary Character, Self-Discovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-16
Updated: 2020-01-16
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:27:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22276324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KittyKatGeorgie/pseuds/KittyKatGeorgie
Summary: Gooch tries to find a word to describe who Gooch  is.
Kudos: 15





	Ma (間)

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry if I messed up any of the Japanese. I'm not very good at understanding foreign languages and I had to use Google.

Gooch wasn't a girl.

Actually, she wasn't quite sure  _ what  _ she was. But definitely not a girl, she knew that. She looked like one though, and everyone thought she was one, so it was weird.  _ She  _ had thought she was a girl too, until now.

Maybe he was a boy. Actually, that didn't feel completely right, either. But it felt better than being a girl. He kind of liked being a boy, when his parents gave him a bowl cut and he kind of looked like his big brother. He looked lots better than he did as a girl with pigtails.

His old name was too girly, so he had to change it. He should have a boy name, shouldn't he? Well, the kids at school called him Gooch, but it was more of a nickname. Because of his last name; someone misremembered it and he became Gooch. It wasn't even very masculine, but it was more his name than his old one was.

He wasn't a boy, though. Not completely, anyways. He liked it a lot better, and he didn't mind people confusing him for a boy, but it didn't fit. No, he couldn't be a true boy.

The weird girl at school, the one with a soft voice who always sang a lot, she said, "Maybe you're nonbinary."

Nonbinary. Gooch didn't know that word. He looked it up when he got home (with help from his brother- he could never understand how the computer worked). There wasn't even a direct translation to Japanese; the closest they could find was  _ Xジェンダー.  _ Gooch didn't know that, either. They ended up researching more together.

Gooch liked the idea of being something between boy and girl. Definitely leaning more towards boy, but something in between. Being a  _ they-  _ Gooch liked that! They, they, they. Maybe he too. Could he use both? They wanted to use both. They liked being in between, but he liked looking like a boy, too. They were  _ 間,  _ their brother said \- the space in between.

Everyone at school didn't seem to mind when Gooch said they were a they now, and maybe a he, too.  _ Demiboy.  _ He liked that word; it fit him. Immediately, the other kids started slipping  _ they  _ into their sentences. His parents seemed a little confused- it was hard to explain without the right words in Japanese- but they didn't mind, either. They did their best to avoid calling him a  _ 女 の 子 – _ , and really that meant the whole world to Gooch. They hardly ever worried about things like this- or, really, about anything- but they knew they would have been crushed if their parents refused to acknowledge them.

But Gooch wasn't a girl, and they weren't a boy, either. They were a Gooch! A little mix of whatever  _ they _ wanted to do.


End file.
